Fast Times at Redmond High
London calling, see we ain't got no high
Except for that one with the yellowy eyes
The Clash, London Calling
Setting: The Redmond High School was built in the late 1960’s. The structure had been built along a 1960’s aesthetic with brick walls and a ranch-style layout; but one hundred ten years of service and having its neighborhood turn into an economic and environmental wasteland had transformed the once-proud institution into a run-down pit of despair.
Yep, this place definitely reminds me of my high school days, Slone reminisced. The troll surveyed the boarded up windows, crumbling brick facade, and rampant graffiti.
It probably doesn’t look much different than when students actually came here to school.
Carlito pointed the face of a gleaming white skull at Alexander, and quoted a quatrain from
Hamlet:
Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite
jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath bore me on his back a
thousand times, and now how abhorr'd in my imagination it is!
My gorge rises at it.
“Stuff it, chiphead,” replied a dour Alexander, “I’m not in the mood.”
“Haha! I can kill you right here,” exclaimed Carlito who pulled up his shirt with his empty hand to flash the elf the nanite-infused hypodermic syringes attached to his abdomen like tiny plastic leaches suckling at his artificial teats.
“So what?” replied the disgusted elf, “I can make you walk off a building.” In spite of the scientist’s mad ramblings, the elf grumbled and muttered to himself,
Why the frack do I keep going along with this nonsense? I should be home putting together my resume. Yet, Alexander had once more let his companions get the better of his judgment.
~~~~~~~~~~
The previous night, the Puritan had opened the door when Alexander had astrally projected and had communicated that they were ready to leave the Ghoul’s Basement. The trio trudged through the office a Discrete Disposal – all of the group covered head to toe in blood and ichor. Carlito cradled Tommy’s severed head like a baby in his arms, softly cooing at it.
The office workers hardly glanced up from their work. As the trio walked through the receptionist’s area, the blonde briefly glanced at Carlito’s pet head and returned to the Augmented Reality Object hovering over her desk: SolitARe.
Must get used to some weird mojo working in this drek-hole, thought the troll.
The Puritan followed the trio through the front of the office and stood in the doorway as they left the premises. “I am sure I will see you again,” stated the Puritan, “One way or another.”
Alexander shivered and turned to walk away. The team crossed the parking lot and stopped by their busted-up Ares CityMaster.
“Sure you don’t want to leave?” Alexander asked. The elf had had enough and witnessing the scientist’s breakdown had unnerved something deep in the lawyer.
If Carlito cracked under the pressure, so might I…
“What and leave him here by himself?” Slone replied, pointing over his shoulder at the mad scientist. The troll would deny it if pressed, but somewhere along the way, Slone subconsciously had shifted his loyalty from his old corp to this ragtag crew.
Meanwhile, Carlito had placed the severed head on the curb next to the CityMaster and began programming a nanite application on his commlink. Beaming the instructions to one of the syringes hanging from an artificial nipple on his abdomen, the scientist loaded a nanoschematic to alter the programming on his hard-nanite Cutters. Carefully removing the syringe from his body, Carlito deftly sprayed the contents of the syringe on the decaying flesh of Tommy’s head. The Cutters had been reprogrammed to seek and disintegrate only the soft tissue rather than bone and metal. Carlito watched as the flesh of Tommy’s severed head melted away in gory rivulets to reveal a completely clean and sanitized skull. Shortly, the scientist could see the top of a shiny metal skull cap where Tommy’s head-mounted commlink had been installed.
Picking up the pristine bone-white skull, Carlito’s Mnemonic Enhancer recalled a bit of Shakespeare from his school days – the bioware increased the density of gray matter in the scientist’s brain aiding his short and long-term memory. Carlito spoke the quotation from
Hamlet aloud:
O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew.
As Carlito spoke the quotation, the entire 3924 lines of the play disgorged into his consciousness at once via his bioware.
Memorize the lines if you want a good grade in your English class, Carlito, the scientist recalled,
Yes, Mother.
While the scientist was massaging his sinuses, the elf shook his head and pulled down the mojo to form a Detox spell; normally he used the spell to sober himself up after a hard night of partying – Alexander didn’t know if the spell would work against the communicable HMHVV strain which causes Ghoulism, but he figured it would be worth a shot.
Better than turning into one of those…things, thought the shaman as he contemplated the Ghoul Mage from the basement.
Noticing the elf was still badly injured from the fight, Carlito set to work with his Savior MedKit. Between Carlito’s expert medical knowledge and the nanotech-powered medical injections, the scientist was able to repair most of the damage from the fight in the basement.
Good thing these site nanoinjections work so well at repairing blunt force trauma, thought the scientist,
I feel kind a bad about shooting Alexander in the back. Shortly, the Alexander’s blunt trauma and blood loss was repaired – from the inside-out.
Watching the scientist work on the elf, Slone brushed off the blood and guts from his duster – he had walked through the melee unscathed.
All that fighting for what? thought the troll.
Slone asked Carlito, “Hey, what’s in Tommy’s commlink anyways? We went through all this trouble, I wanna find out this run is all about.” The scientist obliged Slone by downloading the contents of Tommy’s headware commlink. The only piece of paydata worthwhile on the unit was an invoice for a bunch of medical equipment to an address in the barrens.
That’s odd, thought Carlito as he examined the details of the invoice,
I could have sworn those two MT-432 Genetic Stabilizers were mostly useless for research purposes….
“So what’s next?” queried the troll after Carlito relayed his findings to the group.
“Nothing’s next, we got the head – now we call Paula and deliver it,” replied the disgruntled elf.
The scientist held the skull close to his ear and said, “Tommy says, ‘He wants to pursue this lead he died for’”
“Oh for the Love of Pete! Can you get a load of this chiphead? He’s one slot short of a motherboard,” an exasperated Alexander exclaimed, “Besides we’re on a retainer – that means we do what we’re told.”
“We can end up off of retainer really quick,” Slone reasoned, “I think we should pursue whatever lead is in Tommy’s commlink – otherwise we’ll never be more than a tool for your Johnson.”
Wait, that didn’t come out right, the troll mused.
Smirking, the elf replied, “Alright then, let’s pretend this is a still a democracy and take a vote.”
“I vote we follow the lead,” voted Carlito, “But Tommy thinks we should call Paula, doh!”
“We should call in the job, but then follow the lead,” Slone voted.
“Fine, I’ll call Paula,” noted the elf,
And then I’m done with this lot!
Shortly, Alexander found himself on an ARO vidlink with Paula Peterson. “What can I help you with Alexander?” queried Red – it was late, but she was still at work.
“We’ve found Tommy’s remains – and we have the headware,” replied the elf.
Red asked the lawyer, “Is there any data retrievable from the commlink?”
“No, there was nothing,” Alexander lied, “but we did find a power focus from one of the members of the extraction team. Do you know his sister?”
He’s lying to me thought Red.
“I don’t know what you mean – I don’t know who the sister might be,” Red lied in return.
She’s lying to me, thought Alexander.
“So what do you want us to do?” asked the elf.
“Nothing, return the head and the power focus to me,” replied Red as she terminated the call.
What is his game? wondered the salarywoman.
After the call, Alexander relayed Paula’s message to the group – as well as his misgivings. “The lady doth protest too much, methinks,” a smirking Carlito quoted from
Hamlet once more.
“Good,” Slone remarked, “This means we’re on to something – we can figure out where this lead ends up and try to get ahead of this mess.”
“Fine, you can track this down on your own time,” Alexander stated, “
Pro bono work is for suckers.”
~~~~~~~~~~
The following morning the group met over breakfast back at the Orc with the Golden Tooth. Slone had convinced Alexander to show up in spite of the lawyer’s reticence – “You have to eat breakfast anyways,” the troll had reasoned.
The group ordered breakfast from the ARO menus projecting from the booth. Slone noticed the price of food had gone up significantly since their last meal yesterday.
Must be the food shortage, reasoned the troll.
After the trio placed their orders, Carlito explained that he had been able to determine that the address from the medical invoice in Tommy’s commlink was the old Redmond Barrens High School. The lawyer had some contacts whom knew a thing or two about the barrens; so Alexander relented to his companions and made a few calls. The elf discovered that the high school was being squatted by some corporate group – vehicles entered and left the compound, but no one who ventured onto the grounds returned alive.
Meanwhile, Carlito and Slone resumed their argument over sending the blood samples from the STTC to get tested.
“No way, I’m not going to risk sending the samples,” argued the scientist, “You know they’ll get stolen! And then who’s going to get hurt? My contacts? No way!”
“Better them than us!” exclaimed the troll, “Besides, if we don’t know what the samples are, we can’t figure out who’s behind all this business.”
Eventually, Slone was able to wear down the scientist’s refusal to get his lab involved; hence, Carlito found himself on an ARO call to Sadie Berkman. The scientist’s call disturbed Sadie in the middle of a complicated lab procedure. Carlito’s heartthrob looked peeved on the scientisit’s vidlink.
“Carlito? I’m busy” Sadie stated crisply from the ARO hovering in front of him. The lab tech had not had much sleep the previous night and was not in the mood to placate the sometimes demanding prima dona.
“Umm, Sorry for bothering you, but I have a favor to ask,” replied the scientist.
“What is it?” asked Sadie; she had little time for such errands, but Dr. Samrartha had been explicit regarding Carlito’s requests for assistance.
“I have some samples I need to get tested,” replied Carlito, “Can you help me out?”
Sadie’s mind flashed to an odd memory of the smell of incense and a man’s musky odor. “Sure Carlito, Sure…I can help.”
So Carlito arranged the details of sending the aluminum cryo-case via courier to the lab at EVO Corp. The scientist attached an RFID tag to the package so he could track the delivery en-route. Carlito also sent instructions for Sadie to destroy the samples after testing. The scientist glumly told his companions about the arrangement, “This is not going to end well.”
Slone, looking sated from his double portioned breakfast and the rhetorical victory over Carlito, replied, “Well, that settles that, let’s head back to school.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Later that night the trio found themselves in front of Redmond High School.
“I’ll wait by the truck,” Alexander told his companions.
No way, I’m getting involved in this farce.
“Suit yourself,” replied Slone. The troll was tried of placating the moody elf. Besides, Slone’s gut told him something was in the school that would make sense of this mission and he intended to find out what it was. Looking over his shoulder at the elf, the troll decided to needle the lawyer a bit, “Besides, if you stay put, you can guard the CityMaster from the Go-Gangers we passed earlier.”
A startled Alexander looked around the school parking lot and scurried after the duo as they approached the front entrance to the high school. “You’re mad,” the elf shot back, “This is a trap, are you blind?”
"Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't,” Carlito quoted from
Hamlet.
And so the trio entered the remains of Redmond High School. The school had definitely seen better days. The entire building reeked of human waste and garbage. Used syringes, plastic bags, and other less sterile by-products of drug-addicts’ habits lay strewn about the hallways. The trio walked by wrecked classrooms filled with 55 gallon drums used for trash fires. The hallway lockers had been gutted and their metal doors torn off the hinges to be sold as scrap metal.
The team moved up a stairwell to the second floor of the building. More bedpans, surgical tubing and IV bags littered the floor, but this area began to take on a more sterile scent.
Smells like a hospital, thought the troll.
As the team walked through the hallways, their apprehension slowly mounted. Passing classroom after classroom, the sense of palpable dread grew out of proportion to the situation.
For Carlito, the hallways took on a fiendish quality, as if his worst memories of high school had come back to haunt his waking perceptions. The hallways seemed to stretch onward to infinity; the ends of the corridors twisted to and fro like a bad acid trip. The scientist wiped the sweat from his brow, compulsively crossed himself three times and pulled out his gun.
Why are you so afraid all the time, Carlito? Quit acting like a baby! recalled the scientisit,
Yes, Mother
Even the normally unflappable Slone seemed shaken. The flickering shadows seemed to contain no end to enemies hiding just out of sight, waiting for the troll to turn his back. Slone normally was a glutton for battle, but the eerie surroundings had damaged his inner calm;
Frak, this is all wrong, all wrong, man!
Only the elf seemed to maintain his composure, but Alexander noticed his companion’s unease. Carlito was cradling Tommy’s head closely to his body and had pulled out his Yamaha Sukura Fabuki Light Machine Pistol. The weapon visibly trembled in Carlito’s grasp as the wide-eyed scientist stared down the hallway in front of him. The troll nervously grasped his trusty combat axe – wringing his hands back and forth along the shaft. Slone was licking his lips and was startled each time the trio passed an open doorway.
What the frak has gotten into these two?, thought the elf,
NOW, they choose to flake out on me!
“Do you know where my mommy is?” asked a six-year old girl suddenly standing in the middle of the hallway in front of the team.
“What the frak?” exclaimed the jittery troll.
Where’d she come from? panicked the troll,
She jumped outta nowhere! Spooked by the sudden appearance of the waif, Slone reared back his arm to hurl the combat axe at the urchin.
At the same time, Carlito cried out and attempted to point his pistol at the young girl.
But Ariadne was not having any violence unleased upon her – the girl simply raised her tiny hand and pointed her open palm at the trio. Instantly, Slone felt as though he had hit a brick wall. But the six-year old girl’s steely gaze burst through the troll’s consciousness. A simple command flowed from the girl’s mind to Slone’s:
Stop.
And the troll obeyed.
For Carlito, the command seemed to originate for the voice of his mother:
Carlito, I told you to stop! Yes, Mother.
But Alexander saw the truth of the situation; the girl had cast a Mob Mind spell on his companions. The shaman was able to counterspell the mojo for himself, but Alexander felt even more apprehensive,
What kind of glitched-up six-year old knows how to cast spells?
“Do you know where my mommy is?” repeated Ariadne. The human-looking girl wore an off-white frilly dress that had a few bloodstains at the hem.
Is she an elf or a human? thought Alexander; but the elf couldn’t tell.
“No. What kind of slitch birthed you, Little Daemon?” replied the horrified shaman.
Protect Me, came the command to Slone’s mind; so he turned to face the lawyer and brandished his combat axe menacingly.
Carlito, don’t you love me any more? came the voice of his Mother,
Why are you letting the bad elf hurt me? The scientist turned towards Alexander with a mad glint in his eye.
“Just great,” muttered the elf as he raised his hands and slowly backed away from the ensorcelled duo.
Seeing her opportunity, Ariadne cast another spell and ran to the wall on her left. The six-year old Gecko Crawled up the wall to an open ventilation duct. The urchin seemed to move with superhuman speed and agility. Pausing to snarl at the shocked elf, the girl darted into the duct and scurried away at inhuman speed.
When the Spell’s line of sight had been broken, Slone and Carlito snapped back to conscious control of their actions.
“HOT DREK IN THE MORNING!” exclaimed the deeply perturbed troll. Slone had never lost control like that, and he decided right then that the girl must die horribly.
Carlito on the other hand simply fell to his hands and knees sobbing.
Sorry for disappointing you, Mother, thought the crazed scientist.
After the duo recovered themselves, the group continued onward. Ahead, the trio spied an over-turned gurney sitting in front of what was once the school library. Approaching the double-wide entrance to the library, the team was greeted with an utterly grotesque scene inside the large room.
For situated in the library were dozens of hospital beds. Row upon row of beds arranged in neat columns filled the entire length of the room. Next to each bed was a dripping IV bag dispensing glowing chemicals into the veins of the bed’s sad occupants. At the top of each stretcher was a small commlink recording the vital signs of the subjects. The beds had stained sheets; blood, feces, urine, vomit – no bodily fluid was absent the bedclothes. At the end of the room a larger central workstation wirelessly collected and processed the data from the commlinks. Carlito noticed a large red button in the center of the console.
But the rest of the team stood transfixed by the occupants of the beds. Each bed was taken by a naked woman in some stage of pregnancy. The team could see stitches and surgical scars lining the women’s swelled abdomens. The women groaned and thrashed about in narcotic-driven nightmares – oblivious to their squalid surroundings.
“What have you led me to?” asked the elf to no one in particular.
“Still think we should have left this lead alone?” replied the angry troll,
When I find the slot responsible for this, I’m gonna…
Carlito started walking down the central row between cots towards the console at the end of the room. Alexander moved to the left to examine one of the women more closely; the unconscious orc had features contorted in pain. Slone remained transfixed near the entrance.
And that was when the troll was attacked.
Slone glimpsed movement out of his peripheral vision.
Alright, time for some payback, thought the disgusted troll. But the blur moved even faster than the cyber-enhanced troll. In fact, the troll only had seen such fast movement by corporate razor squads sporting bleeding edge black-market cybertech. So Slone was still trying to bring his combat axe to bear when the diminutive blur flanked him from the right and proceeded to strike a blow straight to the troll’s groin. Slone felt like a lamp post had fallen straight onto his genitalia. As the troll doubled over, he noticed a nine-year old boy smiling and laughing at Slone’s pain. The boy’s hands glowed with a red pulsating aura.
That can’t be good! thought the troll as he slumped to his knees.
Meanwhile, the Ariadne popped out from underneath a gurney near the scientist and cast a Control Thoughts spell upon the nearly defenseless human.
Protect me from the nasty troll, Carlito, came the command and once more the scientist thought the orders originated from his Mother.
Yes, Ma’am.
Alexander saw the young girl and immediately launched a stunbolt in her direction; but the girl’s will was stronger than Alexander’s and she easily countered his blast.
Finally, Slone’s synaptic accelerator kicked in and he attempted to strike out at the boy. Yet, Theseus batted aside the combat axe as if it were made of paper instead of carbonized steel and titanium.
Carlito, hit the big red button, came the order. The scientist looked back at the console and began to walk towards the back of the room.
Laughing at the troll’s vain attempts to defend himself, the lightening fast Theseus kicked Slone in the groin. As quick as the troll was, the boy was faster still – it seemed to Slone as if he moved in water while the elusive boy was a fish literally swimming around him in deadly circle.
Or maybe a shark thought the badly injured troll as he feebly tried to protect the family jewels. The troll cried out in agony and collapsed to his side on the floor as Theseus’s foot found its mark again on Slone’s groin.
The button, Carlito. Hit the button! came another command from Carlito’s Mother. The scientist had reached the console and stared at the glowing red device.
But Mother, if I hit the button it will kill all these women!
But Ariadne already had turned her attention to Alexander. The waif launched a wicked bolt towards the shaman.
A Decrease Charisma Spell? thought the puzzled elf; then he realized the girl was attempting to disable his ability to soak magical Drain.
That no good slitch of a six-year old! thought the shaman as he countered her blast.
Slone could only watch helplessly from the floor as Theseus jumped up in the air faster than a hummingbird and came down leading with one heel straight to the troll’s groin. Slone’s eyes rolled back into his head and he momentarily lost consciousness.
Alexander saw the troll go down; so the elf attempted to turn his next spell towards Theseus. However, the boy was too fast; as soon as the lawyer had looked his way, Theseus scurried away to hide underneath some of the cots on the right hand side of the room. The boy’s mocking laughter was the only trace of his presence in the room.
Kill the dirty whores! came the command from Mother,
Do it, Carlito! The scientist’s hand trembled as he extended it to the red button.
Yet, Ariadne could not press the issue – she was attempting to launch another blast at the lawyer. The second spell might have laid the elf low except something failed in her casting and both the Control Thoughts and the Decrease Charisma spells fizzled.
Slone momentarily awoke to see the hiding boy underneath one of the gurneys. Lying on his side, the troll reached into his coat and pulled out his trusty Ares Alpha. Squeezing the trigger, Slone unloaded a narrow burst into the side of the boy. Theseus screamed in pain and shock as the bullets tore into his ribs. However, the boy was an adept and his skin was hardened by Mystic Armor.
Yet, another nefarious effect was also in play – somehow the boy withstood the troll’s burst.
Tough little slot, Slone wondered,
How did he survive that?
Suddenly, Carlito found himself free of the compulsion to hit the red button. The scientist twirled around to face his mental captor. In Carlito’s mind, the girl took on the visage of his Mother. Screaming aloud, the scientist recited one final line from
Hamlet:
“Frailty, thy name is woman!”
Carlito fired a narrow burst from his Yamaha into the back of the six-year old girl. The bullets tore the young girl in half. Girl-bits pasted the wall next to Alexander as the young sorceress was split asunder under the scientist’s savage attack.
Screw you, Mother! thought the crazed human.
Seizing the initiative, Alexander located the boy from the blood stains on the floor nearby. The elf pulled down some mojo to cast a Control Actions spell on the battered whelp. Theseus was caught in the shaman’s grip as his life’s blood slowly leaked out from his torn ribs.
While Alexander sustained his Control Actions Spell, Carlito recovered his composure and then moved over to the injured Theseus. The human quickly restrained the boy using some surgical tubing. The human patched Theseus’s wounds and injected the adept with one of the nanite-infused hypodermic syringes.
Just in case thought the scientist.
After Carlito had finished with the youngling, Slone finally managed to pick himself up off the floor. Shambling over to the boy, the troll loomed large over Theseus’s recumbent form. Raising his foot, the troll leveled a hard boot-heeled thrust to the adept’s forehead. The boy dropped like a sack of suet.
Snarling at the whelp, Slone spat out, “Never hit a grown man in the balls!”
The ice age is coming, the sun's zooming in
Meltdown expected, the wheat is growing thin
Engines stop running, but I have no fear
Cause London is drowning and I, live by the river
The Clash, London Calling
